March 08, 1993
- Jim Ross officially resigned from WCW this week, which isn't unexpected since WCW had made it abundantly clear that they had no plans to use Ross on the air anymore. While they still planned to use him behind the scenes, Ross didn't want to give up broadcasting, which is what he loves to do, and asked to be released from his contract. Most likely, his contract will have a no-compete clause that will prevent him from heading to WWF for probably 6 months. He reportedly left on good terms and is telling friends he's going to move back to Tulsa and look for radio work in the area.
- Andre The Giant's funeral service took place this week at Andre's ranch in Ellerbe, NC and was put together by Andre's longtime best friend and caretaker Frenchy Bernard. Hulk Hogan, (who delivered 1 of 7 eulogies), Vince McMahon, Randy Savage, Brutus Beefcake, Rene Goulet, Pat Patterson, Wahoo McDaniel, Fabulous Moolah, Ivan Koloff and Rita Chatterton (yup, the former female referee Rita Marie....the one accusing Vince of rape) and others all attended. Hogan broke down twice during his speech and was visibly upset and spoke about how Andre allowed him to slam him at WM3 to help take Hogan's career to a new plateau. Andre's ashes were scattered at the ranch after the service.
- Here's the full story on the struggle to cremate Andre's body: his written wish was to be cremated within 48 hours of his death, however it took about 2 weeks. First, there was no crematorium in Paris that could fit his body (he was 555 pounds at death). A 300 pound custom-made oak casket was built for him, but flights to the U.S. had to be repeatedly juggled around because the cargo holds on most airplanes couldn't fit the casket. When his body arrived in Charlotte, NC, they couldn't find a hearse big enough for the casket and they ended up carrying it to the funeral home in the back of a truck. From there, a forklift had to be brought in to get it out. After the cremation, Andre's ashes alone weighed 19 pounds, which is double the usual weight of a cremated human being.
- A funeral for Kerry Von Erich took place this week also. Many Dallas-are wrestlers attended, but the only other big names were Ultimate Warrior (who was a pall bearer) and Bret & Owen Hart. Warrior has talked about starting a trust fund for Von Erich's daughters, since Kerry was broke and left the family with nothing. GWF will be doing a benefit show in April with all proceeds going into a trust fund for Kerry's daughters as well. Kevin Von Erich will work the main event and Fritz will make his first pro wrestling appearance in over 2 years. They will attempt to get cooperation from both WWF and WCW in hopes that both groups will supply wrestlers for the show.
- The Dallas judge who was scheduled to hear Kerry's cocaine possession case was quoted in a Dallas newspaper the morning after the death saying that Kerry took the coward's way out, which understandably upset a lot of people who felt it was inappropriate for a judge to make a comment like that.
- After Wrestlemania, Hogan's next match is most likely going to be in Japan for NJPW, where he is scheduled to team with Antonio Inoki. Dave doesn't know how finalized this is yet but it's close to a done deal if not already. After that, it's back to WWF where he's scheduled to work against Yokozuna through the summer at weekend house shows. Dave confirms that after Mania, Hogan will film a pilot for a new TV series called Thunder In Paradise. If that series is picked up, expect Hogan to peace out on wrestling again.
- Ric Flair will be doing an interview segment in WCW called "A Flair For The Gold" which will eventually lead to him returning to the ring, likely in June at Clash of the Champions.
- Sid Justice was in Atlanta last week and while the deal hasn't been signed, it's inevitable at this point. Word is he'll be getting an "old-style" WCW deal, with guaranteed money and complete medical coverage if he's injured. No more Bill Watts deals.
- One of All Japan's top stars, Jumbo Tsuruta has been out since October with an undisclosed illness, believed to be severe liver issues. He has been hospitalized the past few weeks with kidney failure but has been released. An announcement will be made soon and it will either be that Tsuruta is retiring or that he will be out of action until 1994 (ended up being the latter and he wrestled a part time schedule for the next few years. In 1999, he was diagnosed with kidney cancer, which spread to his liver, and he died in 2000).
- Razor Ramon underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and will be out until Wrestlemania, but is expected to work the show. Shawn Michaels separated his shoulder and is also expected to be out until Mania.
- "THIS WEEK IN WWF LAWSUITS"
- Vince McMahon's lawsuit against Nailz is simple: he's suing him for the physical attack, which claims McMahon suffered pain and bodily injury as well as embarrassment and humiliation. He also claims Nailz filed the false report of sexual assault, which was reported in the media and caused further anguish and humiliation.
- Ultimate Warrior's lawsuit against the WWF (and Vince and Linda McMahon specifically) is a little more interesting and is full of a lot of details. Warrior claims he created the character, including face paint patterns and strings around his biceps, back in Texas while working as the Dingo Warrior and owns the rights to it. He also claims he was overworked and underpaid in comparison to other wrestlers of his popularity, status, and skill (Dave makes sure to sneak a joke in about the skill part). He also introduced the letter from last week that says Warrior wouldn't be paid less than anyone else, including Hogan, and all that fun stuff. He says that on Aug. 26th, 1991, McMahon failed to honor that letter and when Warrior confronted McMahon about it, he was suspended (this was when Warrior left after Summerslam 91).
- Warrior claims they then renewed their relationship in 1992 and he returned to the company at WM8 but problems continued. Warrior wanted to open a gym, make a workout video, etc. and release it on his own, under the Warrior name. He claims Vince verbally agreed to this but never put it in writing. On Nov. 9th, 1992, Warrior was fired. According to Vince McMahon, this is due to Warrior's alleged involvement in trying to import HGH (human growth hormone). Warrior says this is false. Warrior admits to using steroids throughout his career and says McMahon encouraged it and says McMahon himself continued to use them even after initiating steroid testing in 1991. Warrior says some wrestlers were punished for failing tests and others weren't. Warrior says he stopped using steroids when the testing began. He also claims Vince asked him earlier in 1992 if he knew where to get HGH and Warrior told him that he didn't.
- Warrior also claims he is owed money for shows that he never received as well as merchandise royalty payments that were less than what he is owed. He is also asking to be paid for events that he was booked to headline before he was wrongfully fired, as well as compensation for ruining his reputation by saying he quit before the Survivor Series show last year when in actuality, he was fired and for them to not be allowed to say that anymore (aka, quit burying him on TV). There's nearly 3 pages dedicated to all this and I'm not re-typing all the back and forth exact financials of it, but it's a lot of money and it's complicated.
- Dave breaks it all down and gives his opinion in layman's terms, which is that Warrior was probably a pain in the ass to deal with and wanted a lot of unreasonable requests from McMahon...buuuut if McMahon agreed to those requests (and it appears that he did), then Warrior is probably in the right here about most of this stuff. It will likely get settled out of court and Dave suspects Warrior will probably get a lot of what he is asking for.
- WWF's lawsuit against Phil Mushnick and the New York Post claims that the defendants have had a "systematic and ongoing campaign to maliciously destroy the business of Titan Sports, Inc. and the life of its owner" and that basically, they have slandered WWF and tried to paint them as a criminal organization operated by sexual predators and that they have specifically called Vince McMahon everything from a rapist to a member of the Mafia. WWF says that Musnick and the Post have never attempted to meet or speak with Vince McMahon and refused to print retractions when proven wrong. There's a whole lot of specific examples given and Dave breaks them down one by one and gives his opinion. Long story short, he sides with Mushnick and the NY Post, who he says for the most part, only reported accusations other people had made because they were newsworthy and that the rest is Mushnick's opinion, which he is entitled to. As for other parts of it (that Mushnick accused him of being a mobster or a rapist), Mushnick never actually said those things and merely reported that other people had made the claims.
- Speaking of Ultimate Warrior, he did a radio interview a couple weeks ago and says he has had talks with WCW but nothing serious and said if he wrestles again, it'll probably be overseas. He also noted that he is currently filming a martial arts movie called Firepower.
- Dave gripes that nearly every media source covering Kerry Von Erich's death have mentioned his brother David dying years ago from an inflamed intestine, which has of course always been the Von Erich family's version of the story, but everyone knows it was a drug overdose and Dave seems a little annoyed that supposedly reputable media outlets that should know better are still going with the intestine theory that the Von Erichs have tried to kayfabe everyone with for all these years.
- A bunch of guys are working a tour of Australia this week and the semi-main event is Jushin Liger vs. Chris Benoit. The main event? Jim Neidhart vs. Jake Roberts. Dave asks can you imagine those 2 trying to follow Liger/Benoit every night?
- Randy Savage will be heading to Memphis this week to start a 2-week feud with Lawler for the USWA title.
- In SMW, Robert Fuller had the tasteless line of the week, telling fans he "wasn't going to pull a Kerry Von Erich" while pointing his finger at his head like a gun and pretending to shoot himself.
- Arn Anderson also showed up in SMW this week, under a sheet before revealing himself and nearly giving Jim Cornette a heart attack.
- Maxx Payne did an interview saying Ric Flair is afraid of him. "And you thought they might misuse Flair?" Dave's sarcasm is dripping all through this issue.
- Both Cactus Jack and Vader are working in serious pain stemming from injuries sustained at SuperBrawl. Vader's ear in particular is still badly cut from a bladejob gone awry.
- There's been some controversy over the Yokozuna/Jim Duggan angle where Yoko squashed Duggan and then draped the American flag over him. This is the same match that some TV stations refused to air, deeming it in poor taste. One person in particular went to a judge to try to force WWF to make a televised apology and said it is illegal for the flag to be desecrated in such a way. Dave says nothing will come of that.
- The Berzerker is gone from WWF. Word is he has cut his hair and has a job selling cars in Minnesota and is out of the wrestling business.
- WWF's presence in Japan is taking a turn for the worse. Their television syndication is being dropped, their PPV distributor is no longer airing WWF PPVs and their company that distributed their home video releases has cancelled their deal. None of these are related, it's just a coincidence that it's happening all at once. WWF wrestling isn't popular there and none of WWF's stars (aside from Hogan) mean anything to Japanese wrestling fans.